Santa Maria island, Azores - Vila do Porto - The 7th and 8th of August 1975

(...)

We reached the Naval club just in time to order dinner and whilst we waited wandered about the port embellished by a rainbow which emerged after it stopped raining. The walls of the harbour with its mural paintings artistically left by the seamen who came ashore from different places in the world vaguely reminded me of the one in Horta island or the one I recently visited in Funchal.

The restaurant of the Naval Club was entirely decorated with sea-oriented artefacts of various origins, but what did catch my attention was a old diving suit I couldn't help looking at from time to time just wondering how it was possible to have been able to dive in the past carrying so much weight on.

The following day we got up slightly later than we had until then, though still early so as to be able to go to the local market before flying back home to buy some local specialities (cheese and biscuits). A rather funny sign at the entrance to the market caught our attention " One does not hand out goods on good faith unless you are over 90 years old and accompanied by your parents."

On the way to the airport Cristina decided to drive through the residential quarter for NAV employees and that's when I realised that the quarter I had photographed earlier believing it was this one had little to do with it.

We still had time to gather with some heads of different departments and some local cakes before catching the flight. Whilst showing them the photos we had taken at Calçada do Gigante we unexpectedly realised that we hadn't been where we were supposed to, though close enough, which meant we had missed it altogether.

We vowed to come back some other time and visit what we didn't have time to due to the schedule. The airport walls covered in tiles depicting various landscapes of the island made me feel like staying. It is only when one stays some time away from the city and its bustling does one realise what one has been really missing in one's life.